Down to nine men on the road against the best team in MLS is not where anybody wants to be. But Philadelphia Union believed their captain had been done wrong, and they were determined to show Atlanta United that teamwork could overcome missing players. As the home side poured on pressure, the Union held strong until early in the second half when Josef Martinez doubled Atlanta’s lead.
Philly could have folded; they could have packed it in and saved their legs for the future. But Warren Creavalle’s workrate in the center of the pitch spurred his teammates on, and when the only midfielder on the pitch found Fafa Picault with a looping ball into the Atlanta box, the winger made no mistake, finishing with patience and confidence to stun the Five Stripes and re-energize his teammates.
The entire sequence is begins with Fabinho taking a free kick because Haris Medunjanin, Borek Dockal, and Ale Bedoya were all out of the match for, let’s say, various reasons. The fullback’s initial ball into the box is half-cleared, but Creavalle is on his toes and scoots over to knock it back into traffic. Picault is alert and skips backward to stay onside, then takes a wonderful controlling touch and lines up his body for a shot. The strike splits the outstretched legs of Leandro Gonzalez Pirez, then nutmegs goalkeeper Brad Guzan, adding additional humiliation to an Atlanta side that clearly believed they could waltz through the Union with a two-man advantage.
For fans, it is gratifying to see players give even more effort once they odds become clearly stacked against them, and on that night in Atlanta, Jim Curtin’s men did just that. Returning the match to a one-goal difference meant it only took one more mistake from the home team for Philly to stage an unlikely comeback. Although that second goal never came for the Union, Atlanta huffed and puffed but couldn’t find their security goal until the 83rd minute thanks to the unending effort of the visitors. Picault’s goal was galvanizing, and that is why fans voted it the June 2018 Goal of the Month.
